Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Welcome to the foyer, below. Beyond the terra cotta urn on a plinth is a hall leading to a frontdoor (iron gate). Ah, creation of mystery & privacy..MORE, poppets, if you can stand it !!! Gate & terra cotta urn are on axis with the bronze hatted girl in the previous post. .Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Saturday, August 28, 2010

In most landscapes she, below, would be a focal point on axis with a main view. In this Italianate garden she's a subsidiary focal point. A surprise, lovingly tucked in..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Remember, the landscape design rule: 1 Focal Point/area. .Pic taken in Athens, Ga this month in the same garden as previous post.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Charming courtyard, below, created when an addition was added to their home. An original doorway, top at left, no longer needed.

Repurposed as a staging area for annuals.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Alas, poppets, I was there the day the annuals were ripped out. With drought, heat & the gardener just returned from vacation it was still fabulous. What fun choosing new annuals, new colors-textures-heights.

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This was the 3rd repurposed doorway I've seen like this. Mrs. Whaley's garden in Charleston, SC. A private garden in Greensboro, NC. And now this Athens, GA garden.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

From the lower garden, formerly a tennis court, I first saw this sculpture on a plinth, below. (Did you notice, below, the dry stack stone wall?) Up the stone steps, below, curiosity is satisfied.

Drawn to another garden room, below, I turn & see a better axis for the sculpture. (Did you notice the mature canopy/understory trees+sky view?)

Inside the new garden room, below, the axis keeps getting better.

Then I turn body, but not feet, to my left & see this, below,

and about fall over in delight/surprise. Vanishing Threshold.

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Inside the room, above, the first sculpture is on perfect axis with the door in the center of the wall.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, from Athens, GA, taken last week. Same garden as previous post. Think this is easy? Good, poppets, do it in your garden too. Remember, this is a subdivision with homes encircling the garden. Always a tough constraint.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Behind the hemlock, below, a street & stop sign. View from the bench, above, another street & another stop sign..Yes, the front corner of a corner lot. In an almost century old subdivision in Athens, GA..Conifer-hardwood-shrub obscure views in one direction yet provide backdrop for another view. .Ah, poppets, the bench. Elegancies of a dark stain, an overdose of curves, all-year warmth of wood, perfection of scale & an invitation of repose. .Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pic taken last week. Stay tuned for more of this fabulous garden.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Simplicities: trim color is not a bright white, no window screens, interior window treatments are elegant, lights on inside, contrasting foliage textures, contrasting foliage colors, espaliered lushness upon home, well maintained, easy to maintain, urn is fabulous enough to be empty, urn is not hugging wall of home or frontdoor, classic template of centuries copied, design is elegant in winter, makes me want to see the interior, makes me want to see the rest of the garden, the landscape describes the owners. Front of home, above, and its backyard, below.

Shown in yesterday's post too.

A retired couple lives here. They maintain the garden.

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Two important questions to ask yourself about a pic of your home.

1. Is it so wonderful I must see inside?2. Is it so wonderful I must see the entire landscape?

Friday, August 20, 2010

"If you have 5 period styles in one room, you're going to have a problem." Mark Worthington says..One focal point per area in your landscape."Colors should match exactly or they should provide enough contrast that the contrasts feels like a conscious decision." Mark Worthington says..Drifts of green foliage next to drifts of burgundy foliage next to drifts of variegated foliage & etc.."It was one little change, but all of a sudden the whole volume of the space was different." Mark Worthington says..When I painted the white trim, of my red brick home, a faded Monet green my house grew taller & sat further back from the street. White jumps forward, darker colors recede in the garden.."show the history of how you've developed the space, with individual pieces from different moments of your life." Mark Worthington says..Do not buy all your patio furniture & focal points & pots in one afternoon from 1 store..You don't want, "a train-wreck look." Mark Worthington says..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pic taken at Atlanta Botanical Garden last week. I'm teaching a 4 week class there this month..Mark Worthington is a TV production designer. He was interviewed by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

"Perhaps it was strange for a young boy to have as his best friend an aging spinster, but neither of us had an ordinary outlook or background, and so it was inevitable, in our separate loneliness, that we should come to share a friendship apart. Except for the hours I spent at school, the three of us, me and old Queenie, our feisty little rat terrier, and Miss Sook, as everyone called my friend, were almost always together. We hunted herbs in the woods, went fishing on remote creeks (with dried sugarcane stalks for fishing poles) and gathered curious ferns and greeneries that we transplanted and grew with trailing flourish in tin pails and chamber pots." Truman Capote Capote goes on to describe, "Miss Sook, sensitive as shy-lady fern...".Are you attractive to children?.Garden & Be Well, XO Taa.Gardening for children? Futile in my opinion. Garden, fully, for yourself & Be-Who-You-Are. Children know the great characters. .Pic taken in Susanne Hudson's conservatory..Truman Capote quote taken from, The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, copyright 2004, Random House, http://www.atrandom.com/. Thought it would have Breakfast at Tiffany's but only had his short stories, "literary fiction".

Puppet Barbuda is incredulous a wall of 'green': involving 18 wheeler trucks, greenhouses, soil with peat moss & etc, attractive to weeds, needs watering, will die if it becomes shaded, containers made from an oil base, labor/expense to attach containers to wall... is shown off as desirable.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Meeting a new client, for the first time, in their foyer is intense. My eyes are chewing up the scenery, wheels in the brain spinning.Personality in foyer decor is at the top of unspoken clues I have for Landscape Design..Style, color, completion, tired, alive, dead space, friendly, cold, careless, anal, lamps, lamp cords, sconces, lamp shades, hardware, flow, interesting, boring, layered, halltree, chest, desk, secretary, books, art, flooring, switch plates, builder's original lighting or new, dogs, cats, children, music, fragrance, & etc..Attention to detail in the foyer predicts attention to detail in the landscape. .Landscape design must give hints of the foyer. Who you are begins at the curb..Layers of Vanishing Threshold..You got this layer covered?.Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Foyer, above, by interior designer Susan Burks. Designing her landscape was a joy, her interiors already welcoming me at the curb.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Vanishing Threshold, among other things, places your home as a focal point in the landscape.Paint colors, doors, hardware, shutters, views into windows, gutters & etc. .When the architecture is good simplicity works the best.

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Counterintuitive, it was a hard revelation. Why? I adore plants.

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Sure, I see benches & pots, above, but the architecture (degraded as it is by changes over significant time) allows simplicity to reign.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Beauty trumps. This gardener knows..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.I think this gardener slowly took over the courtyard. A pot here, a pot there, then bodaciously pot/palm plopped center stage. Voila, gorgeous, and really good sun. Do you do this too, create backstories to gardens without trying? .Did you notice the pot theme? .Pic by Shipman taken in Italy last week. He's on a multi-week blow-out cruise.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Landscape Design is all about contrasts. Big leaves next to small leaves, green foliage next to variegated, waxy leaves next to pubescent leaves. Square planters at the entry to a round meadow.Metal rail, vintage modern furnishings & silvered decking flow from the interiors, Vanishing Threshold. Thriving in contrast with verdant woodland..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pic taken at a client's last month. Apologies for the lighting it was noon.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The 1st barn was interesting. An hour later & dozens more, just like it, I realized they were a local vernacular. Roofing, pitch, boards, color, economical, enduring.

Buy land in Elk Horn, Kentucky? I would trust the vernacular & build the same type of barn.

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Years of trying to recreate the wheel are over. Landscape design is copying, building upon what is proven to work. Knowing, counterintuitively, when I recapitulate ideas into another landscape a new wheel is, indeed, created. Without thought or effort..

It takes courage to tap into the energy of other beautiful landscapes. To copy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last weekend in Elk Horn, Kentucky. I saw Providence on display both nites, The Milky Way bathing me in light (not seen since the 1970's.) Mature, peak of bloom Joe Pye weed coated in butterflies so thick the blossoms were obscured. Taking the pics I saw a fresh smashed frog in the road, in front of the barn, above, with a butterfly taking nutrients from it. Butterflies are drawn to fresh feces, are they drawn to fresh entrails too?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

He's 68, retired, & living his dream on 10 acres of Kentucky heaven. A mix of rich character. Living as a conservative, voting liberal, spending as Jesus would. By hand, and alone, he's building this drystack stone wall behind his home.

Pics taken in Kentucky last weekend. Have always had a piquant fascination for old stone walls. Wanting to know when they were built, who was the builder, know the 'life' swirling while the wall was being built.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Curves of nature. Spit of rock, below, in the stream. A lovely marquis shape to plant hosta along a path in your woodland. Perhaps the far shore is Azalea 'George Tabor' & the marquis shape a drift of helleborus. Understory trees planted where 2 or 3 of the larger stones arise from the stream.

Distributions of ironweed, Joe Pye weed, and more, in the Kentucky field, above, another template. Perhaps for a perennial border or a mixed border.

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I adore reading nature at its purest for copying into Landscape Design.

Pics taken this weekend. Did you notice how the slope was contained, at the gravel drive? Of course I said, YES, when invited, roadtrip with a girlfriend to stay with another girlfriend & her yardboy! Stopped at roadside junk sales along the way. Bagged a few old lawn tools. More......

Friday, August 6, 2010

Creamy color taken from bricks. Window box & hare, a still life. Shutters rich, not builder grade. Thought went into this Frontdoor welcome. My Dear Lady is pulling thru to health after months. Her garden oblivious to her inattention. Instead, her garden enriching the healing process..Does your landscape work for you or do you work for it?.Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pics taken this week, same garden as previous post. Your interiors may be fabulous but their first impression is at your Frontdoor.

My Dear Lady has been slowed by multiple health issues for over a year. Yet her garden has never been a worry for maintenance, even during this 5 weeks without rain.

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This is the point of good Landscape Design: can you work a million hours, travel, caretake a loved one, or have health issues & still maintain a beautiful landscape?

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A beautiul landscape not allowing for real-life is not a beautiful landscape, it's stress.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken earlier this week in the same garden as previous blog post. Poppets, "I" did not literally perform labor in this sweet garden my contractor did. Wish I could rip out mature shrubs, install flagstone terraces & etc.... !

Monday, August 2, 2010

"The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is merely an accident relating to the circumstances of the owner. It is the size of his heart and brain and goodwill that will make his garden either delightful or dull, as the case may be, and either leave it at the monotonous dead level, or raise it, in whatever degree he may, towards that of a work of fine art."

Gertrude Jekyll, Wood and Garden, 1899 When a client has compost, above, filling their drive I know they are of the finest rank..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Pic taken last week in the same garden as the previous post. Wish you could smell the sweetness of that compost pile.